The Tenten Days of Christmas
by Silent Magi
Summary: Based on the song the Twelve Days of Christmas, someone wants Tenten's attention, and goes about it in a big way. With the help of Naruto, can she figure out who is the gift giver, and why they sign only as 'My True Love?
1. Day 1

Tenten sighed as she tromped her way through the snow from the training ranges. Once again, Gai-sensei had taken Lee off to work on Taijutsu, and Neji had insisted on studying some super-top-secret-not-pervy-in-any-way-ultra-high-level-Hyuuga-clan scrolls. And that was just how he phrased it while turning a shade of red that she would have once sworn only Hinata could reach.

And thus it was another day of freezing her buns off, and numbing her fingers against cold metal. It barely even registered that it was only just getting to be dawn of Christmas day, a curious holiday that had infiltrated into their society from foreign traders. Most ninjas saw it as a signal from on high to relax and take off, but not Team Gai. Not that Tenten minded, after all she wouldn't have celebrated it. Why should she when she was always alone at the end of the day, in her apartment. Hurray for the orphan, huh?

It was only her and her weapons. In fact she remembered getting her very first kunai from the kunoichi that had helped run the orphanage. She had told her the tale of Tsunade the female Sannin and how she was superior to all males in any possible way, and how men should be subjugated to the whims of all women everywhere. It was about this time that the other woman told her to stop talking or else she'd be sleeping on the couch. Even now Tenten wasn't quite sure why that was such an efficient threat, but she had some suspicions.

Right now she just wanted to take a hot shower, and have a nap before night training. And so she walked into her apartment, sidestepping a few traps when she found something amiss. She didn't remember leaving a training dummy sitting on her couch with a cup of water in hand, and a kunai through its chest.

Edging closer to the dummy, she searched it carefully for dangerous tricks. The only thing she could find that was suspicious about it was the card dangling down from the ring of the kunai.

"Merry Christmas Tenten-chan," the card read, "You know not who I am yet, but I hope you'll enjoy these twelve days of Christmas. My True Love."

Tenten glared at the note silently for a few minutes, before speaking the first word to come to mind. "What?"


	2. Day 2

Tenten had found out a lot about the supposedly simple gifts from "My True Love", first was the dummy itself. While it looked like a simple wooden training dummy, a closer inspection revealed silver lined seals on one heel, while inside the hollow of the other was a scroll. On the scroll was the true wealth of what she had been given.

The dummy was not only self-healing, but also moved on its own if fed a little chakra. It was also programmed to spar against an opponent. It even could use weapons! This was an incredible and almost ideal present. She knew from her own shopping that these dummies could run upwards of 50000 ryuu each. The best part of it was, it only needed a little wood oil in the spring to keep in top form.

That gift however was dwarfed by what exactly the kunai was. First was that both sides of the blade had rare chakra steel forming the cutting length, and then it was covered in rare seals, that she had to spend hours with seal masters to even learn what they did.

The first set of runes was one to keep the blade perpetually sharpened, the next was a chakra molding seal to make the use of wind chakra easier. It extended the blade, and made it sharp enough to cut through anything. And the final set was a curious one that absorbed chakra from opponents and used it to harden the kunai itself so that it wouldn't break or be cut through, especially not with chakra weapons, since it would just absorb the chakra.

This gift was hand made, and crafted over several months of very detailed labor. The seal master had suggested that whoever made this likely had spent two years just learning one set of the seals, all said and done, that one kunai was most likely to have been forged about the same time as her father was born. The seal master had offered to buy the kunai off her so that he may study the seals more in depth, but something deep inside her made her outright refuse and cling to the kunai like it was a lifeline during a storm out at sea.

Practically dancing over the snow, she found herself heading home wondering what she should make for lunch. The first problem with her plan, was when she stumbled upon one of her traps having been sprung. She knew there was something amiss right now, and she was on alert.

Following her traps towards the front door, she found none set off, but the shredded paper she had slipped into the doorjamb had fallen down onto the ground, meaning that someone had been in her apartment while she was out. As she opened the door slightly, she peeked in and looked around cautiously. Nothing seemed out of place, save the dummy sitting on her couch again. This one had gloves on, and was holding the kunai off its finger.

Walking in she frowned at the note that was attached to the ring again. "Dearest Tenten-chan, I hope this second day of Christmas finds you well. For such a one who has warmed my heart on the coldest of nights, I hope that these gloves help warm your hands. My True Love."

Tenten lowered the note and looked at the gloves curiously. When she did, her eyes nearly bugged out of her skull. These were the special sealing gloves that she could store weapons into, and were also designed to keep her hands at a constant temperature, no matter what.

". . . Woah... I think I might have to pay more attention to others..." Tenten mused as she looked over the gifts sitting in front of her. "Who could have possibly bought all this for me?"


	3. Day 3

Tenten sighed as she leaned against the dummy that she'd been training against, while the other kept Neji busy with one of her scrolls. This was certainly a more beneficial training than she'd had in several months, and for the first time in ages she was actually tired after practice.

In the back of her mind she was wondering about that "My True Love" who had been sending her these gifts. In a way she figured it was someone very interested in her romantically, and for the life of her she couldn't imagine who would have the means and the passion to do this.

Her first thought had been Neji, but he had been genuinely surprised at the arrival of the training dummies and all that the kunai could do. While it would have been nice to count on him for this, he was just too... Hyuuga to do something like this. Not that he wasn't becoming more open and friendly, but it still seemed like he had a chip on his shoulder with too much to prove. Maybe he was taking niceness lessons from Hinata?

After Neji was Lee, and he was out faster than he arrived. The idea that he was the possible sender nearly sent her into giggle fits. That was only topped by the next image she got, that of Gai sending her the gifts. If they had been weights or taijutsu specialized training tools, she might have given the two of them more of a thought, but these gifts just weren't "youthful" enough to have been from them.

Sighing she pushed herself up and contemplated bringing in the rest of the kunoichi in on this dilemma. That was passed as one of them could have been the sender, and she'd never figure it out if they were in on the plots to catch the gift bearer. The sheer possibility that someone with obvious feelings for her was driving her completely nuts. What she needed was a partner to help her think things through, with little to no chance of them being "My True Love".

Despite herself, she felt a blush building on her cheeks that had nothing to do with the cold. Someone had a crush on her, and it seemed to have been for a while from the sheer extravagance of the gifts she'd been given so far. At the very least, they weren't about to do things by half measures, and that she could appreciate.

Seeing the two green atrocities returning she only half listened as Gai-sensei explained that he was going to be out of town for the next nine days, and how he expected them all to continue training independently. What Tenten got out of this was the following, she'd just end up doing the same thing as though he was still here, and have more time to think on her little gift problem.

Leaving the eccentric half of her team, she walked away with Neji, the dummies heading towards the shed she had instructed them to use, seeing as it housed more than half of her training gear already, she saw no reason they shouldn't use it too. Thinking about the dummies, she frowned in thought again as they reminded her that today there would be something new awaiting her.

Something about that warmed her heart, and she began to rub the back of her gloves nervously. This person was besting her security measures, or at least only setting off the less hazardous ones. Had been into her apartment twice, and probably three times now, and yet she still had no idea whether it was a guy or a girl wooing her.

So deep in thought was she, that she didn't see anything in her path, until she found herself on her backside, with a familiar orange clad blonde in front of her. That's when it clicked into place. NARUTO! He was perfect to help her out. He was still completely in love with Sakura, or was it Hinata, wasn't he? So he couldn't possibly be her personal ninja-Santa, could he? No, of course he couldn't be!

"Oh Naruto! I'm so sorry," she apologized while helping him up, "I wasn't looking where I was going..."

"That's fine Tenten-chan..." Naruto answered sheepishly with a weird laugh and shining smile. "Hey Neji, how's it going?"

"Uzumaki..." Neji intoned dryly with a nod before walking away. "I shall see you around Tenten..."

Tenten waved to the back of Neji's head for a moment before her brain caught up with her, and she simply said, "Bye Neji."

Looking back at the blonde, she smiled sheepishly before pointing to her apartment. "Hey Naruto, how about some tea as an apology? Maybe you could help me out with a problem I've been having..."

Naruto's face faltered for a moment, but Tenten figured that was normal, since the request was rather weird. After all, it might have been the first time he'd been asked to tea and then mentioned that the person might ask a favor of him. But then it was gone and he was smiling widely again. "Sure thing Tenten-chan, I'd love to try and help if possible."

The trip up to her apartment was uneventful, save for Naruto almost tripping over one of her traps. Sighing she pushed open her door and found a dummy in the same spot as always, save this one had its feet up on something. Looking closer her jaw nearly fell out of joint as she found that what she had thought was mere boxes containing something were actually three ingots of solid chakra steel. This time the kunai was about the toe of the dummy, and the note ran along its sole.

"Tenten-chan," Naruto's voice spoke up as he read the note, "On this the third day of Christmas, I hope it finds you well. By now you must be guessing who I am... if by the twelfth day, you still don't know, I shall await you with the last of your gifts. Until then, a hint I shall give. You may have guessed I am a ninja, and this is true. What you may not know is that I am a year younger. Until the twelfth my dearest Tenten-senpai I remain passionately yours, My True Love"

Tenten blushed as she looked at Naruto, who seemed to be deep in thought over the note. She'd never really looked at him closely since his battle with Neji, but she could tell those blue eyes held a lot of love and passion towards his dreams and his precious people. The tanned complexion and whisker marks gave him an exotic tone, while his blonde hair just made him sing out life like the sun above. It was a pleasant look.

Before she could muse farther, Naruto turned away and sat at her kitchen table, leaving her favorite chair opposite him. "It seems this 'My True Love' wants your attention... and is out to get it, no matter what...."

"Yeah..." Tenten answered nervously as she started some water to boil, blushing at the thoughts she'd been having about Naruto. "I don't even know if it's a guy or a girl yet..."

"Does it matter?" Naruto asked curiously, waiting for Tenten's reply. The reply was lost as Tenten honestly considered the matter.

While she wasn't an man hater like the kunoichi at the orphanage, she had to admit that sometimes it was pleasing to look at women as well as men, but she'd never actually considered romance with either of them. After Naruto's gentle clearing of the throat brought her back to the real world, she blushed and fidgeted around getting out the cups, tea, and a light snack cracker she enjoyed. "I... I guess not Naruto, I mean..."

"Say no more," Naruto answered with a wide smirk that made her feel like a canary trapped by a starved cat. "You've never really given it much thought, have you?"

"No..."

Naruto mused for a few minutes before commenting on something around the apartment, and the conversation just flowed from there, and for the first time in nearly three days, she didn't think constantly about her secret admirer.

When Naruto left that night, Tenten sighed happily, having never had a friend that would just sit and talk to her like that. They'd covered an entire range of topics, but as she turned back to look at her couch, she had to let out a few choice words that Gai would have died from hearing. She'd completely forgotten to talk to him about the gifts 'My True Love' was delivering.

Smiling to herself, she decided that she'd just have to talk to him again tomorrow. After all, he had promised to help if possible. Maybe she could take him out for ramen, chow mein, egg rolls, or sesame dumpling soup... or something.

After all, it wasn't like a date or anything, right? So there was no harm in talking to him in public.


	4. Day 4

Tenten was enjoying the first chance she had for a 3 on 1 spar since the academy, these dummies were even using teamwork to make it harder for her. It was magnificent! Ducking under one slash opened up a dummy to a mule kick, sending it flying away, while a second got one of her kunai into the crotch, causing it to fall and 'bleed' out. It was amazing to have a dummy able to react as though it was a wounded opponent.

Next came the third one, which she charged towards and slashed open its chest like butter. Spin-kicking it away she blocked the returning dummy she'd kicked away earlier, and used her open hand to summin a hatchet she had stored away in the glove. Less then a heartbeat later found the hatchet blade blade burying itself deep in the face of the dummy, killing it.

Pulling back, she panted as she waited for the dummies to heal. Before they did, she heard a soft clapping noise from behind her. Spinning around, she held another hatchet at the ready, glaring at the intruder, only to nearly drop it as Naruto beeped her nose. "Hi Tenten-chan! Want to go get some lunch? My treat..."

Tenten blinked as the smiling blonde leaned over to pluck the hatchet out of the final dummy's face. As he turned it curiously over in his hands, she realized that he had asked about food. And the growling of her stomach reminded her that she hadn't eaten for about five hours, five hours that she'd been sparring with the dummies at various intensity levels.

"Uh... yeah sure..." Tenten answered with a blush as she started collecting her weapons. Naruto walked around, policing up some stray kunai and shuriken that she had thrown two or three rounds ago. It was after a few minutes of not listening, that she realized Naruto was talking to her about her gift bringer.

"Sorry, I was a bit distracted..." Tenten admitted with a blush as she fidgeted with a kunai ring.

Naruto laughed sheepishly as he stashed the kunai and shuriken into a spare pouch for her. "I was just saying that I was thinking about what 'My True Love' told you yesterday... It seems to me that they are keeping an eye on you..." Naruto repeated while handing her back the pouch. "They also seem to have been longing after you for a while... Are there more notes?"

Tenten blushed as Naruto's revelations made her feel that she hasn't been keeping a good enough eye on her surroundings if something like this had escaped her notice to get to this point. "Y...yeah, they're back at my place, we can go there and..." her response was cut off by her stomach growling.

"Let's get them after lunch, ne?" Naruto asked with a huge smile on his face.

An embarrassed nod later, she found herself being guided to one of her favorite restaurants. Originally she'd assumed he'd take her out to ramen, but it seemed that he did in fact eat other foods. As they got seats fairly close to the back, she smiled as he ordered sesame chicken and asked for the same.

Their tea came first, and the conversation began to flow as they waited. The topics covered who they thought it could be, and why they were out. After an hour of covering every person, and all the pros and cons of them, they were no closer to narrowing it down.

Tenten sighed as they headed towards the exit. Naruto paid the bill, and gave a nice sized tip to the waiter, that seemed slightly shocked at the amount. Naruto chuckled slightly as he guided her towards her apartment. "I've got some money coming in from an investment that Ji-san set up for me, and I like splurging on good food like this."

Tenten nodded with a laugh. It made a lot of sense to her actually, why not splurge on good food and weapons when you have the money? With a smile she opened her door, and found another dummy sitting there waiting for her. This one had three swords strapped to its back about mid back, while kneeling in front of the ingots, holding out a third as one would to a feudal lord, the naked blade stark against the gloves, and and the kunai dangling off its finger.

Tenten took to looking over the blade with an appreciative eye. After a few minutes she gasped and picked up the sheath to look at the entrance hole. Right inside the opening she found that the blades slide against a pair of sharpening stones. This would sharpen the short swords every time they were drawn and sheathed, and the seals practically made the stones unnecessary, but it was still a nice touch that really made her feel loved.

They weren't even familiar blades, instead they were the rare ones that were designed for hacking and slashing, and generally hammering away at the opponent instead of just slicing through them. They were also designed to break through all armor, including the heavy metal stuff that the samurai in the Land of Iron used. The one blade alone was a gift beyond measure, since she'd longed for them ever since she'd seen them in a book in her first year at the academy.

"Tenten, the dearest of all, it is day four of Christmas, and I pray you're well, and your wits are as sharp as these blades," Naruto spoke up, reading the note attached to the kunai, "These are made from the hardest steel that the Land of Iron could produce, this is the metal that they don't export. I hope they serve you well. Always with you, My True Love."

Naruto let out an impressed whistle as he inspected the blade in Tenten's hands. His eyes widened slightly as he looked at a few of the seals, tracing a couple with his fingers almost lovingly. "This is some high quality work Tenten-chan..."

For some reason, Tenten felt her cheeks blushing deeply at the look in Naruto's eyes, making her wonder what it would have been like to be given such a look. Shaking her head slowly she went over to the desk drawer she had stashed the other notes into, and handed them over to Naruto. After reading them over, Naruto set them down and leaned back with the cutest puzzled look Tenten had ever seen. "It seems they really do want you to like the gifts, and that you're healthy. They're also doing this for twelve days, so maybe you need to stay in tomorrow, and see if you can't catch them."

Tenten couldn't argue with that idea, and so they began making plans. Naruto would bring along lunch around noon, and then they could cook something later for supper. She felt bad about him buying twice in a row, but he insisted and refused to take the money she offered.

Shortly after Naruto left, she considered calling him back, so they could hang out longer. It felt oddly empty without him around, even though she'd been alone for so many years. Sighing, she settled into her favorite spot on the couch and put her feet on the back of the dummy, studying it intensely. "Just who sent you? Why are they spending so much on me? It's like they're trying to make up for something... that I never had a Christmas before? That I've always been alone? Every step I take closer to figuring things out... I feel that there I am twelve more steps away..."

The dummy, instead of answering, just remained silent and stationary. She wasn't surprised at all about this, after all, it was just a training dummy. Closing her eyes, she wished that this secret Santa would just tell her who they were. It would be a lot easier on her nerves.


	5. Day 5

Tenten was waiting in her apartment, reading a couple different bingo books, polishing a few of her older weapons, and was in the middle of doing a fortune read about the possibility of Naruto and her being in a relationship when a tapping sounded from her window. Looking over, she felt a blush forming on her cheeks as she saw Naruto standing there, holding up a few boxes she recognized as being from the Chinese restaurant they went to last night.

Rushing over she opened the window and let him in. As they walked back to the table, she slipped a few steps ahead of him and cleaned up the cards with a slight blush lingering on her cheeks. She couldn't remember quite why she had decided to even attempt such a reading. After all, Naruto was stuck on Sakura, or maybe he finally returned Hinata's feelings for him, right?

And even if those two weren't there, there were all the rumors about the priestess in the Land of Demons, and the princess in the Land of Spring (or was that Land of Snow?), and the one from the Land of Vegetables, and the daimyo of the Land of Birds, Gaara from Suna might want to link the nations by wedding Naruto into the family, that Isaribi girl was still around Konoha somewhere she thought and she had feelings for Naruto, the rumor that he might be a long lost prince of the Land of the Whirlpool due to his emblem, those rumors of a Naruto fanclub in the Land of Waves leaving offerings for his health (and that he returns to find a bride) didn't escape her notice either, and that was only the beginning of the list. When compared to them, what chance in the world did she have?

Setting out some plates and chopsticks, she blushed again as Naruto laid out the Chinese food for her, sliding a container of her favorite spring rolls closer to her side of the table. She had to admit, that he was as lucky as those rumors said if he had managed to guess her favorites like that.

Their meal was like the previous, a lot of talking about themselves, and trying not to focus on the obvious stalker who was pursuing her so extravagantly. To be honest, it made her happy to have a friend to take her mind off things like this. As she was finishing off the last of the almond cookies, a strange thought occurred to her.

"Hey Naruto, you mentioned that the Third invested your money for you..." Tenten started, stopping when she noticed the sad look in his eyes. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't think it would be so painful for you still..."

"No... it's not that Tenten-chan... it's..." Naruto started before breaking off with a slight laugh. "You'll probably think it's foolish, but I'm afraid that when I become Hokage, no one will remember that I'm still Naruto Uzumaki...."

Tenten looked at him in surprise, seeing this unsure and vulnerable side of her friend, she wondered briefly just how few had seen it before. Reaching across the table, she covered his hand in hers, and smiled warmly. "I'll remember you Naruto, and if you ever need a friend, just call on me."

Tenten's eyes widened as Naruto looked down at the hand and blushed, before he looked away. He was SHY! Mr. Orioke no Jutsu, the pervert buster extraordinaire, the unrepentant Prankster Prince of Konohagakure was shy about a girl being forward with him. Oh this was too good to pass up.

Leaning a little more, she hooked his chin with her forefinger and turned him to look at her properly. Bringing her face within inches of his, she smiled her best seductive smile, getting a larger blush out of the tanned skin boy. Oh this was so cute! Take that girls! She had seen him blush and become flustered in private.

"Naruto..." she whispered softly, watching as his eyes flicked down to her lips. For some reason she lightly trailed her tongue over the top lip, and savored his eyes widening. "Naruto... are you going to finish those spring rolls?"

Naruto blinked for a few minutes, before looking down at the trio of rolls laying on his plate. It took a few more seconds before his mind kicked in, and he just slid the plate over. "I... I... uhh..."

Naruto was cut off by a knock on the door. Blinking the pair looked at each other and shrugged. Tenten pushed herself away from the table and answered the door. On the other side was a mail-nin, with a scroll for her, from what he said was to be delivered anonymously.

Taking the scroll, and tipping him, she shut the door and looked at it curiously. She could tell that it was a storage scroll of some sort, but what sealed it in her mind was the fact that it had "My True Love" written on the outside of it.

Swallowing the sudden lump in her throat, she unraveled the scroll and poured a little chakra into the release tag. What popped out was a surprise to say the least, the dummy this time was kneeling before her, as though worshiping the ground at her feet, its kunai was stretched out on the ground between its hands tip pointing away from her, with the note sticking straight up. The gloves were still on its hands, but other than that, it was bare.

The ingots were behind the dummy, almost touching its feet, while the swords flanked it on either side, as though submitting its victory to a lord. What really caught her attention however were five shuriken forming a star in front of it. They were the new item of the day, and compared to the rest, they were rather plain. However, she had judged things too quickly before, and wasn't about to jump to conclusions too quickly.

Picking one up, she looked it over carefully, using not only her eyes, but also her fingers to find anything special about this shuriken. After searching the entire thing she frowned and tried pouring a tendril of chakra into it. That's when she found the seal for lightning.

Tilting her head curiously, she looked up at Naruto, who simply pointed to one of her targets on the opposite side of her from him. With a shrug, Tenten gave the shuriken a fling, and gasped at the resulting swarm of kunai flying forth. Twenty exact copies of the original sprang out, embedding themselves in a swirl, trailing lightning the entire flight.

It was official, when she found out who this one was, she was going to hold on for dear life. As the copies faded out of sight, she picked up another shuriken, and repeated the test. This one instead trailed flames, and exploded upon impact.

Deciding to leave the rest for when she made it to an open training area (and replacing the now missing wall), Tenten picked up the note and read it aloud to Naruto.

"Dearest Tenten-hime," Tenten announced calmly, slowly building a heavy blush. "I do hope this day finds you well again. This servant training dummy is yours to do with as you command, as are the weapons he bears. Though I suggest not using the shurikens indoors, they are infused with the five elements of chakra. Have fun! My True Love"

Looking up, she watched as Naruto put on his thinking face, glad that he wasn't teasing her about the note. Instead he was focused on the problem at hand. At least she thought that's what he was thinking, until he asked. "What's that on the back? I can't read it from here..."

Tenten flipped the note over in puzzlement, and frowned as she read it. "P.S. No fair trying to peek at your final present by staying home Tenten-hime. Also, that Naruto boy is making me jealous... am I not enough for you? MTL"

"Seems they have a sense of humor..." Naruto remarked with a laugh. Despite herself, Tenten found the laughter infections and joined in. Maybe this wasn't so bad, but she was still worried if he or she would take Naruto's presence as a challenge and try to hurt the helpful blonde.

As she thought about this, said boy... no she thought with a shake of her head, said man, was summoning up kage bunshin to repair the wall she'd blown up, and return her slightly singed shuriken. She'd make sure she'd put them away extra carefully, and hide them from Gai-sensei. He was still a little leery about letting her have explosives.

Meanwhile, in three separate locations throughout Konoha, three males each grabbed their respective hair cuts protectively and let out a whimper of terror they couldn't explain.

But that was a story for another time, right now she had to help Naruto fix her mess.


	6. Day 6

Tenten sighed as she leaned against the door to her apartment. She'd been out all day, training, running, sparring, and talking with Naruto, letting him take her out for lunch again, training with him, being close to him, smelling him (sunshine in a forest comes to mind before B.O. overwhelmed it), dunking him in a spring, practicing her new shuriken on him when he had splashed her in return, and all in all forgetting about 'My True Love' and their mysterious nature.

Turning to the dummy, she smiled as it held out one of her towels for her, which she accepted readily before inventorying the gifts. Kunai and note, opposite hand. Battle gloves, worn and ready, Ingots of chakra steel, piled neatly next to the crate she'd taken to storing them in, which was nice. Self-sharpening swords, lined up neatly on her table for inspection. Shurikens, sitting next to the swords on a velvet cloth she'd set out.

With the checklist done for the other items, she inspected the new arrivals, which were lined up in a circle around her table. The scythe like blade of the kama was easily recognized, but she saw the thin ninja wire chain coming off the handles and running towards the weights, making them kusarigama. Instead of going closer for an inspection, she plucked the note off the kunai and got to reading.

"Dearest Tenten-chan, I hope this note finds you well. Today the gifts are not seal coated as the others, but the history is a specialty in and of themselves. Though they are simple iron, they have fought and held against some of the greatest demons in the Land of Demons. They like you are forged in the fires of battle, and I know that you use them well. My True Love."

Tenten looked at the kunsarigama more intently now, realizing just how precious the weapons were. Picking one up, she found that indeed it didn't have a single seal on it, but she could feel the spirit of the weapon rejoicing in her hands. Tears sprang to her eyes as she lovingly stroked the length of the chain, wincing slightly when her finger nicked itself on one of the sharp edges. Sucking the pooling blood free of the finger, she checked to make sure her blood hadn't stained the metal, only to find it clean.

Setting it aside she put a small bandage on the wound, just to ensure that it didn't get infected, and wondered just how she could go about learning Kusarigamajutsu. After all, she'd not heard of anyone in Konoha knowing it. Sighing she looked at the dummy who remained holding out its hands to her. "I don't suppose you have a training scroll on you or anything, huh?"

As she turned away to finish wiping the sweat from her face, she heard a compartment open, and something like a scroll fall out of the dummy. Turning around, she stared at the open chest cavity of the dummy, which was slowly closing, while a scroll unrolled itself from between the dummy's feet, revealing that it was the basic kata of the Land of Demon.

Rolling the scroll up, she eyed the dummy again curiously for a few minutes. Turning away she tucked the scroll in with her others, and contemplated what this just revealed. Apparently 'My True Love' was well traveled or well connected. That... or they had one hell of a mail order catalog that she had to see.

Turning back to the dummy she decided to push her luck, and ask it another question. "I don't suppose you could tell me who 'My True Love' is, now could you?"

The dummy didn't say or do anything, and so after a minute she sighed and turned away with a bitter laugh. "Yeah, I didn't think so..."

Turning away she started heading for the bathroom to grab a quick shower, when a knock sounded on her door. Looking at the door, she eyed the dummy suspiciously. "That... would be too weird..."

Walking over, she wondered why the dummy seemed to be holding its hands as though to indicate the door. Opening it slightly, she found Naruto's smiling face among a group of the kunoichi who had come to see her as the big sister of the group. "Hey Tenten-chan, they were looking for you, and I thought I'd help them find you. Apparently, they're wanting to take you to that new co-ed hot springs just down the street..."

Sakura smiled sweetly as she held up five tickets. "Tsunade-sama offered us these tickets, and we thought it'd be nice to take you. After all, you've done so much for us..."

"Y... yes... senpai..." Hinata muttered out quietly, next to Naruto with her fingers poking together. The blush she had on her face must have drained all the blood out of the rest of her body. Tenten was surprised that she had remained standing this long.

Ino looked between the smiling Naruto and the confused Tenten a few times before smiling widely. "And since it's co-ed... we could even bring your chummy friend Naruuuuto with us..."

Tenten blushed and stuttered worse than Hinata was, but not by much, and it seemed that Naruto was having just about as much trouble coming up with a valid, or even coherent, reason to be excluded, especially with a free ticket right there.

Sakura playfully tapped Ino's arm, while laughing, sending the poor purple-clad blonde flying down the hall like she was nothing. Suddenly she had a lot of respect for Naruto's head to survive getting hit by her. That and his spine must have been compressed to nothing but a solid rod of bone more than once.

"Stop that Ino! Tenten's not dating Naruto," Sakura defended her teammate while still laughing. "Besides, I think Naruto would die of embarrassment if he went."

Tenten marveled at how easily Naruto had been played, and watched as his stuttering ceased and he calmly reached out and took a ticket from Sakura, who wasn't in the least bit surprised. "Fine, I'll go..." Naruto grumbled before stalking off for his apartment.

Tenten reached out an arm and caught the Hyuuga heiress as she fainted dead away to the world. Oh yeah, this was shaping up to be a load of fun already.


	7. Day 7

Tenten wasn't quite sure, but somehow the girls and Naruto had kept her out until well past midnight. Maybe it had been watching the snow fall in the hot springs, or the hot chocolate that Hinata had bought them, or maybe it was the song the girls were singing after they found out about her gift bringer.

It hadn't even been Naruto that let it slip, but instead she had the latest note stuck to her shoe and Sakura had asked her about it. After everyone had read it. That's when the song started...

Ino had teasingly started the melody with "On the first day of Christmas, My True Love gave to her, a kunai in a dummy..."

Then Sakura had picked it up, adding on "On the second day of Christmas, My True Love gave to her, two battle gloves, and a kunai in a dummy..."

After that, Hinata had joined in shyly, while Tenten was trying to strangle both of the other girls. "On the th... third day of C...Christmas... My True Love gave to her... three steel ingots, two battle gloves, and a kunai in a dummy..."

Naruto, though she may or may not like him, was trying his best to not laugh as he joined in, dodging her despite the blindfold the girls insisted he wear. "On the fourth day of Christmas, My True Love gave to her, four self-sharpening swords, three steel ingots, two battle gloves, and a kunai in a dummy!"

Then the four of them ganged up on her during the final verse they could sing about. Oddly changing the melody for the one line. "On the fifth day of Christmas, My True Love gave to her... FIIIIIIIVE SHUUUURIKEEEEN! Four self-sharpening swords, three steel ingots, two battle gloves, and a kuuunai in a duuuummyyyyy!"

Tenten huffed for a moment, before joining the others in laughter, seeing the humor in her situation. After all, it did make for a good song, nice and catchy. After that, she got some gentle teasing, and a little humming from the others, but they also seemed to have fun teasing each other as well. It was nice, almost like having a family.

Then it had ended as abruptly as it had started, leaving her alone in her apartment again. Just her, her weapons, and the two dummies dancing with each other. Letting out a sigh she started heading for her bedroom, thinking about heading out to find one of the others. She was almost to her room, when something caught her distracted brain. She had left with only one dummy present.

Turning around she inspected the dummies, and indeed one was the dummy from earlier, but one was new. This one had a necklace of seven stones around its neck, reaching out she felt one of the stones, only to catch her fingers on the netting holding it in place. Slipping through the holes in the mesh, she felt the stone, finding the familiar surface of a sharpening stone.

Plucking the note from the kunai, she went into her room and turned on a small lamp beside her bed. Sitting down on the bed her eyes traversed the words on the slip of paper before her. "Dearest Tenten-chan, I sense that you are not well. Though you may be the rock of your team, even the mightiest of boulders can be worn down by the waves of loneliness. I ask you to bear with these remaining days until the final gift, and then neither of us will have to be alone again. Be well, My True Love."

Tenten stared down at the note for a few more minutes before wiping a strange moisture from her eyes. It wasn't tears, not for something like this, not again. Pulling out her stuffed kunai doll, she hugged it close and curled into the corner of her bed. She remembered spending many nights like this at the orphanage, especially after being overlooked on adoption days.

Sleep brought little relief, but what followed was an odd first for her. Someone had made her breakfast in bed, and left it recently enough that it was still hot. Just as she was about to check it for poisons, Naruto walked in carrying a glass of orange juice that he must have brought over, since she'd drank the last of hers weeks ago. "Hey Tenten-chan... I came over the morning, and saw you looked a little sick..."

"Oh... uhh..." Tenten started, playing with her breakfast. "Thanks..."

"No problem, I know what it's like to be alone and not feeling well..." Naruto answered, while sliding a spoon over to her. "I know rice porridge isn't very good, and I can't promise this will even be that, but it's better hot."

Tenten couldn't help but join in his laughter, it was like a yawn, simply infectious. "I'm sure it's fine Naruto... how'd you get in?"

"You left your front door open," the blonde stated as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I noticed My True Love left you a gift..."

"Yeah... seven sharpening stones..." commented the weapons mistress as she dug into the porridge. Her eyes widened as she tasted a little honey mixed in. Before she could empty her mouth to ask, Naruto was answering.

"Shino has a bee farm that he keeps by my garden. I planted some winter flowers for them in a greenhouse. Normally they're dormant this time of year, but they still gave him a jar of honey as payment for the protection from the cold. And he thought I might like it..." Naruto explained with a slightly distant but happy look. "The Old Man helped me set up that garden..."

Tenten followed his line of sight, to the third's bust on the monument, where just past the crown of the head, she could see a glint of light reflecting. "He also set up that the Aburame clan would keep the bugs that would destroy my garden in check. I just had to set up a small section of the garden for them to use as breeding grounds for their insects.

"You mention the third a lot... but it's never respectful..." Tenten pointed out in between bites, "Why is that?"

Naruto's face fell slightly as he fidgeted with his hands. "It's part of my fear that people are going to forget me when I become Hokage. He always told me that it was a shinobi's duty to protect the village, but a Hokage's honor to protect the shinobi. The problem was that the honor was the loneliest task one might undertake. Everyone distances them from you, and refers to you only as your title. It's like you're not a person any more. That's why he liked me treating him like I did... and I'll keep doing it in his memory."

The silence fell thick over the pair, Naruto looking at his hands, while Tenten watched his eyes shining with building tears. Putting her hand on Naruto's she smiled warmly at him and decided to shift topics a bit. "You never did tell me what he invested your money in..."

"Oh? Hair care products, that 13-hour construction company, and ramen stands," Naruto mentioned as though it was the most natural thing in the world. Tenten blinked before starting to laugh again.

"Only the three highest demand businesses in a ninja village... with you in it ramen hunter..."

"Shhh be vewy vewy qwuiet, I'm huntin' wamen," Naruto intoned in a subdued and slightly stupid sounding voice. "ehehehhehe"

That caused Tenten to snort porridge up her nose. A rather unpleasant feeling, but for some reason she couldn't get mad about it, it had been funny after all. And so passed breakfast, two friends just talking, and one of them trying to keep said food from entering her nose again, while the other kept cracking jokes in a seeming attempt to make it happen.


	8. Day 8

Happy New Years to all my fans and friends.

* * *

A day in with Naruto had done wonders for her spirits, but still when he had mentioned having to go home, she clung to his hand like a lifeline, and asked to come over to his apartment with him. She really didn't want to be alone right now.

The stars were bright on the cold and clear night as they walked along, hearing sounds of partying going on all around them. One of them said 'new years' and they just continued on, talking about random things. Somewhere along the way, they had passed by a liquor store that was selling sake at half off, since Shizune had forced the Hokage to go sober again.

Naruto suggested picking up a bottle of the weaker kid sake, just so they could have something to toast at midnight. Tenten went in and picked up a brand at random, taking it up to the counter, she put the money down for the bottle. The cashier only took a look at her forehead protector and counted out the total before bagging up the bottle in a brown paper bag.

It wasn't until after they had toasted and gulped down their cups of sake did they realize that it wasn't the mild kiddy sake. Tenten was pretty buzzed after gulping down the first glass, but Naruto looked fine, so she felt they could keep drinking. Anything after that became fuzzy to her mind as she woke up.

And that would explain how she woke up in a strange, slightly musty smelling bed with little to no clear recollection of how she got there. Thankfully there was a glass of water on the table nearby, and the two pain relievers were the strong stuff the Hokage herself personally endorsed. Looking around there was a few things she noted about the room. First there were sheets being used as makeshit curtains blocking the sunlight, second that there was a vaguely human shaped lump on the ground in the corner, and third the only direct light source she could make out was the arms of a clock that informed her it was now slightly after one in the afternoon.

While this information filtered through her still hungover brain, she realized a fourth thing. She needed the bathroom, and badly. Looking around as fast as her head would allow, she found a note telling her where she was, and the directions to the toilet. She was pretty sure she set a speed record for person with their first hangover down that hall.

By the time she was done, the lump was missing, and the smell of rice and eggs was filling the air, starting her stomach off on a complaining jag. Following the smell, she found the second weirdest thing she'd ever seen. The first being when she walked in on a rather yaoi moment of Gai and Lee's training. To say that the spandex hindered any chance of tanning was an understatement. They made rice look like coal in comparison.

So it was understandable that three Naruto's dancing around in frilly pink aprons could be considered only the second weirdest thing she'd ever seen in her life.

She assumed, correctly, that the one sitting at the table slurping down a cup of instant ramen was the real Naruto, but the sight of the rice and eggs called more than any question she might have had. The late breakfast, okay lunch really, was a silent one, for which her hangover thanked her for.

While the trio of clones did the dishes, Naruto convinced her to go home and check on the gifts from 'My True Love'. He even insisted on walking her there, mostly to get more of an idea of who he was, based on the gifts he'd gotten her this time.

The three dummies seemed to be playing games as they walked into her apartment. Two of them were playing something that looked like Hackey sack with with one of the sharpening stones, while the third was playing what looked to be cards, until she got a closer look. It wasn't card, but explosive tags the dummy had been playing with.

If her mind hadn't disappeared into happy fun-fun boom-boom land, she might have realized that neither of her teammates, nor her teacher could possibly be the gift bearer. Not after the 'incident' that Gai sensei refused to allow mention of.

Naruto wasn't exactly sure what had happened to his friend, and wasn't entirely sure he wanted to. After bringing her a towel for the drool, he carefully pulled the note out from the explosive tags and kunai. Giving it a once over he chuckled.

"Dearest Tenten-hime, I hope today finds you well, suppose you party hard last night. At least you weren't alone. This gift is handmade, and I do not know if they're as nice as the rest of your gifts, but I think you'll get a bang out of them. Just make sure it's in an empty area when you test them please... I might have made them a bit too strong... My True Love."

Naruto looked between the note, and his friend that was now frankly disturbing him with an Orochimaru grade laugh. It sounded like a mix between arousal and a promise of pain. And that just sent shivers up his spine.

Little did he realize that three others bearing the Konoha leaf headband were thinking about early retirement at that precise moment, and the only thing they could attribute it to was the chilled feeling clawing its way up their spines.


	9. Day 9

Tenten fidgeted anxiously as she watched Naruto puttering around his greenhouse garden. She wanted to go out and play with her special happy super awesome new boom boom tags, maybe with two or four of her teammates. After all good things should be shared, shouldn't they?

She shouldn't complain though, Naruto had been spending his free time with her nearly non-stop for the past week, it was only fair that she return the favor. She just couldn't understand how he could be so into something so... BORING! Touching the soil at the base of the plants, running a finger along the underside of a leaf, adding a touch of water here, muttering a few words there. It was all so dull, but yet Naruto was engrossed in it beyond any comprehension Tenten could fathom.

Looking at the little plant next to her, one Naruto hadn't visited yet, she sighed and touched the water at the base carefully. It felt moist to the touch and a little gritty, about right for a plant she thought, but some needed more water didn't they? Frowning in thought she turned over her hand to rub the underside of the leaf trying to figure out what that was about.

She hadn't expected it to be fuzzy, but it was. In fact it kinda tickled her as she continued stroking her finger over the plant. She leaned in and laughed lightly as she cooed at it like a baby. "Coochie coo! Oh you're just the fuzziest little plant ever, aren't you?"

"Lamb's Ears are like that..." Naruto's voice from directly behind her danced with mirth. "That is one of my new ones... it's supposed to spread out and serve as ground cover."

Tenten blushed as she turned around, having been caught in a rather weird position. "I... Uhh... you didn't see that, right?"

Naruto smirked and stepped around her to check the plant next to the Lamb's Ears, humming softly as a bee settled on the back of his hand. After a moment Naruto seemed to finally see it, before singing lightly, "Hey there little friend... is your hive warm enough?"

Tenten marveled slightly as the bee danced around on Naruto's hand and flitted off to the hive. Tenten watched as it joined in the milling swarm there, visiting a lot of the flowering plants. "What'd he say?"

"Drones are females Tenten," Naruto answered as he added water to a small tray, where a few sprouts were pushing forth from the ground. "And she let me know they were fine."

The weapon's mistress nodded absently as some of the spouts seemed to straighten right before her eyes. "Is there a reason you sung for her?"

The blonde's reaction was a soft chuckle before putting up his tools. Kneeling down next to a sprawling leafy plant, he plucked off two leaves and offered her one, popping the other into his mouth. "It's simple Tenten, they're a musical creature. You should hear the Aburame singing to them sometime, it's amazing."

Following Naruto's example, she popped the leaf into her mouth, and enjoyed the minty flavor it had. The idea of the Aburame clan singing amused her for some reason, maybe it was the fact that no one outside of their clan could accurately describe one of their faces, or that they talked in monotones normally. Whatever it was, it made her day brighter, just like this mint leaf.

Her musing was interrupted by the introduction of a new element to her physical body. As she quickly pulled on her battle gloves, she figured it might be a good idea to pay attention when walking out of the greenhouse and into the cold weather.

The two walked along silently for a stretch, Naruto taking the lead. For the first time she took the chance to observe him while his mind was distracted by other things. His body language was relaxed and peaceful, but there was a whiteness in his knuckles, a pain lingering in his eyes, and a stiffness in his shoulders that belied that. It seemed as though he wanted everyone to think he was at peace, only to have a whirlpool of pain under the surface.

Whirlpool... wasn't he supposed to be a lost prince of the Land of Whirlpool or something? Would make his Uzumaki surname make a lot more sense.

The turmoil in his shining blue eyes hurt, but it was often drowned out by the oddly too natural smile he was wearing, bearing all his teeth. It took her a moment to realize that he was asking her something, so she just caught the end. "... get some from the shop?"

"Yeah, that sounds good..." Tenten replied, blushing slightly at having been caught staring. She was acting more and more like Hinata did around Naruto. Soon she could just imagine herself poking her fingers together and passing out.

To her surprise, they bypassed Ichiraku's ramen, which was closed for the holidays she saw, and instead entered into another soup shop. Naruto ordered himself a couple bowls of red bean soup to go, before looking at Tenten expectantly. Looking over the menu quickly, she ordered some egg drop soup to go. Once again, before Tenten even had a chance to reach for her coin purse, Naruto had paid for and started carrying the soup containers.

"Come on, let's go see what they left for you today," Naruto offered with a teasing tone. "Maybe it'll be nine geese a laying, or nine red roses..."

"Nine kings ransoms, nine battle axes, nine Gai-suits..." Tenten countered, causing both of them to start laughing at that mental image. After a moment Naruto cleared his throat and indicated her apartment door.

"Shall we find out if your admirer has fuzzy-brow's fashion sense?" Naruto teased.

Tenten smiled warmly at Naruto, before unlocking and opening her door calmly. There was the dummy of the day, the tags dancing merrily off the arms, the stones worn as a crown this time, the kusarigama served as a belt, the shuriken were stacked on a pointer finger, the swords where sheathed across its back, the ingots served as a footrest to give the dummy a rather heroic pose, the gloves were in place, and the kunai was resting against the back hip note dangling down.

Naruto set the soups on the table, while she looked for the new gift. After a few minutes she shrugged and read the note. "Dearest Tenten-chan, Today your gift is not something to be given openly as this dummy would. However, if you look to the HEART of the matter, you will find it. A little RELEASE is all you need to receive the gift. My True Love"

"Why are heart and release in caps like that?" Naruto asked curiously while peeking over her shoulder.

"I don't know... maybe it's clues to get the rest of the gift?" Tenten offered while looking at the dummy. "Let's see... the heart is... right here..." Tenten continued, poking the chest of the dummy. "I don't see a catch or anything like that... maybe I have to pump chakra into it?"

"Just a little bit..." Naruto corrected.

Tenten lightly brushed her hand over the chest where the heart was, lightly trickling her chakra into it. A few seconds after she did, the dummy's chest slid down, revealing nine scrolls. Catching the one falling out of the cavity, she unrolled it partially before letting out a squeal of joy.

In her hands were copies of the rare scrolls of the weapon's master Mishamoto, said to have perfected over thirty weapons, in all their styles. The one in her hands was for kusarigamajutsu. She wasn't sure, but Naruto would swear that she was glowing, at least until she threatened to coat him in exploding tags.

'My True Love' must have spent years hunting through the library's archieves, to find these, and then years to copy them over. This was awesome!


	10. Day 10

Tenten greeted the dawn in a way that was all to familiar with her. The sounds of her kunai, shuriken, and other masses of metallic death impacting against the training dummies filled the brightening sky with a beat of death and pain. Naruto had told her that he had a team meeting today, and that he'd probably not be around all day. It was nice that he let her know, but she just didn't know why she'd become so used to him being around all the time so fast. Maybe it was something about him that just drew others in like flies to honey.

Shelving those thoughts for another time, she began cleaning up her training area. She had a little looking around to do, and the scrolls gave her the first clue.

Her first stop this morning had been the Shinobi library, and in particular the librarian, that confirmed someone about her age had been in the training scrolls section, they didn't remember much about him, but they had at least pointed out that it was a him. For some reason just knowing made it easier on her. And the next stop was to the oil merchant off of the main street of Konoha.

This stop was added after she had found her new gift for the day, imported oils for wood, metal, leather, and massages. The note had teasingly suggested that he would be the lucky one to rub the oils into her. She had to admit the smell of a few of the massage oils put her into a very good mood, which was why she had taken to hammering away at the dummies for a few hours today, instead of hunting down the merchant right away for information.

She didn't need another lecture on threatening civilians, or Anko-sempai following her around for months trying to get her to join Torture and Interrogations again. How was she to know that Gai-sensei had gotten to the explosive tags dealer and arranged a banning of her purchase of the happy happy boom boom fun fun tags. She was still a little miffed about that, after all, their hair grew back...

Heading into the village, she dug out the note to read while she walked. "Dearest Tenten-hime, I have noticed you suffer from stiff shoulders, and thought these oils might help. Maybe I'll be the one to work out those troublesome knots. And as one must care for their weapons as they care for themselves... oils for the care of your tools. Enjoy, My True Love."

Tenten made it to the store with little trouble, and found the clerk barely awake behind the counter. Okay, she had to admit that there was a few people who couldn't handle mornings the same way she could... After all, not everyone could possibly like being up before the Sun, it would just be weird. Especially since that was what kept the green duo alive.

Looking around, she found that she had been musing long enough to pass the oil merchant, sighing she turned around and began backtracking, paying close attention to her surroundings. She was getting really bad about this lately. Maybe once she figures out who 'My True Love' was, she'd be back in normal form.

Finding the oil merchant's shop was easy, now that she was actively looking for it. Finding the man himself was easier still. The information he provided was the easiest to understand. Now she was looking for a girl with waist length brown hair, vibrant emerald green eyes, and creamy complexion. After thanking the merchant, she found herself walking back towards the training grounds. For some reason even though she was smiling, people were giving her a street's width of clearance.

Of course 'My True Love' would use henge to buy the gifts, she should have known that. And as her kunai began plowing through the targets, she had to admit that they got her good with this little snare. Set up two easy clues, and then use a henge to keep their true identity a secret. If she didn't know they were a ninja already, she'd know it now. As the last of her weapons impacted the targets, she decided it was time to work on her taijutsu.

She barely realized that punching rocks with the battle gloves on didn't hurt nearly as much as it should, especially since she wasn't channeling chakra into her strength or protecting her hands. A few minutes later, she decided that it was a very stupid idea to kick the boulder when her fists weren't working fast enough. Now she had to limp her way to the hospital, and get her big toe looked at. She was fairly certain that hearing that type of crunching sounds was bad.

Her trip was cut short when she heard a cough from behind her. Praying to any power that be that it wasn't Naruto standing there she looked over her shoulder, and felt her heart and rage drop down into her now broken toe. There, looking rather bemused was her idol, Tsunade of the Sannin, the current Hokage, and head of the Konoha hospital.

"I heard reports of a person the brat's been hanging out with being pissed enough to kill, and thought I'd come check it out..." Tsunade offered while poking Tenten in the breastbone with enough force to make sitting down the only option, unless she wanted a broken sternum on top of the toe. "And I find you wailing upon a poor defenseless rock, and losing."

Tenten winced slightly at that, she lost, in front of her idol no less. First the fight with Temari, then her temper with Naruto in the Land of Birds, then there was the mission that only she wasn't selected for, the Gaara mission, her chakra control wasn't good enough during the Three-Tailed Beast incident, and many more failures began piling up in her mind, culminating in her second to latest failure: 'My True Love'.

"There you go again," Tsunade stated calmly as she pulled off Tenten's boot. "You never win when fighting yourself Tenten..."

Tenten blushed and looked away, biting her lip as Tsunade began inspecting her toe. Even though she was being gentle, it still hurt like hell. After a moment she sighed. "I can't win today... he's beating me at every turn..."

"He?" Tsunade asked as she began healing the bones back into place. "Is all this about that secret admirer of yours that Sakura's been going on about?"

Tenten looked down at her gloved hands silently for a few breaths before answering. "Yes... I... I just want to know who it is..."

Something of a shade of guilt passed over Tsunade's face, before she let out a heavy sigh and settled into the grass next to the weapons mistress. "Why is it so important to know who it is? Aren't you finding out in two days?"

Tenten opened her mouth to answer, before stopping. Why was it so important to her? Was it so she could judge them worthy or not? Was she hoping for someone in particular?

At this last question, a familiar smiling blonde ball of energy and sunshine popped into her mind. He had become so dear to her in the past few days, it was like he wanted her to know that she was the center of his world, but couldn't say it out loud from lack of social training. Did she really have feelings for Naruto? Was that why she wanted to know?

Plopping onto her back, she stared up at the blue sky, letting the winter breeze drift over her, cooling her temper with the rest of her body. "I think... I like someone... and I don't want to lead the other on... so I want to let them off before the final two days..."

Tsunade watched the younger brunette quietly for a couple seconds with a sweet, sad smile on her face. Reaching over she pulled the startled kunoichi into a hug, rubbing the snow off her back. "You know... if I had ever had a daughter... I would have loved her to be like you... You have a good heart, and a strong head on your shoulders. If you could learn to control that temper, I'm sure you'd do excellently in both battle and love. You know... I overheard someone mentioning that they were worried about this 'My True Love' person stealing you away before they could prove themselves in your eyes..."

"M...Me?" Tenten exclaimed, her mind reeling from all the information presented, Tsunade respected her enough to wish her daughter would have been like her, and someone liked her... aside from the obvious suspect.

"Yes you... Now put on your boot, and get some rest, I want you to stay off that foot for a day at least, maybe even two..." Tsunade instructed with a motherly smile. "I sent one of your new training dummies to gather your weapons, they're in the backpack over by the road. And I'm telling your little buddy that you're to take it easy for the next day or so, understand?"

The glare the Hokage forestalled any arguments that she might have had, and instead she meekly answered "Yes ma'am." and limped her way out of the clearing. The healing helped, but it still hurt, but then again, bruised pride never did heal with jutsus; only time.


	11. Day 11

Being stuck at home wasn't so bad, Tenten realized, at least when compared to being stuck in bed. At least she had some company to keep her entertained, even if he was being an overly worried mother hen about everything. She just wished Naruto would get here soon and chase Neji off before he smothered her with his worries and care.

At first it had been nice, getting her hair brushed out, and braided. She'd never really had friends to do that before, and didn't feel right asking the guys of her team to do it. And breakfast had been nice, she never really had time to make omelets before, but he insisted on doing it, so she let him. And then he began cleaning.

Every time he found something tucked under furniture, between cushions, in cupboards, under rugs, in closets, and in drawers, she'd hear the now dreaded clicking of his tongue and try to bury herself further under her blankets. If he didn't look so good in that french maid dress, which she didn't ask about, she'd have kicked him out, busted toe or not.

A familiar voice going 'Kai!' repeatedly, from her living room let her know about her guest. Naruto was just in time to save her. She heard Neji leaving, and then saw Naruto in her doorway looking like he'd just seen the Sunset of Mental Destruction for the first time. "Before you say anything... don't ask... and yes, most of them are."

"Get asked that a lot, huh?" Naruto asked once his brain had returned from it's happy, safe, ramen filled, sanity zone. Tenten's smile and nod convinced him it was safe to enter, so he sat carefully on the end of her bed. "Your admirer left this by your door..."

Tenten looked at Naruto's hand, where a sealing scroll was waiting for her to take. Unrolling it next to her bed, she released the contents. A quick check verified all the other gifts were in place and accounted for, so now all she had to count was the new one. Which was another sealing scroll for some odd reason.

Picking it up, she released the items within, finding her lap suddenly filled with tarot cards, star charts, books on palm reading, astromancy, horary astrology, lithomancy, extrispicy, reading tea leaves, dreams, and rhabdomancy (with divining rods). Blinking she looked at the variety of fortune telling devices in confusion. Unlike the uniform gifts of everything else, these were different. Without even saying a word, she reached out and plucked the note off the kunai.

"Dearest Tenten-chan, I heard that you hurt yourself. These are gifts to help you know not to do so in the future. If these are not enough, the others I bring you tomorrow should be. Until then, you'll always have 'My True Love'."

Looking between the note and the pile on her lap, she couldn't help but start laughing. This was just insane. How did they even know that she believed in fortune telling? Or that she had been practicing?

Naruto took some time to arrange things neatly, for him at least. Meaning that while Neji would likely blow a few brain cells over this, everything was tucked neatly in or near their rightful place, except the fortune telling devices, which were stacked neatly by the bookshelves.

The feeling of warmth and contentment she felt whenever Naruto was around returned, with a sense of rightness. That's when Tsunade's words came back to haunt her. As Naruto went off to dig up some lunch for them, the thoughts of the possibility that she was falling in love with Naruto caused a blush to form on her cheeks.

It wasn't that she was opposed to it, just that she'd never considered something like this before. To her falling in love was a thing that the silly little kunoichi wannabes did when they found out that the life of a ninja was not what they wanted, or for the older ones, when they were getting ready to retire, but not for her. Not yet.

She was supposed to grow old, find a nice stable man, a weapon smith probably, and settle down somewhere teaching weapons at the academy. Have a few kids, teach them to be the lethalist little nut jobs on the planet, watch them grow up and stuff.

Thinking on it, Naruto wouldn't be a bad husband. Their kids would have the most protective father on the planet, and he could be in multiple places at once. She actually found herself picturing the two of them with kids before stopping her mental processes with an iron fist. She wasn't some stupid, giggly, girly girl, she was Tenten dammit! And that meant that she wasn't supposed to get lost in these types of daydreams.

It was about this time that her girly side snuck up behind her and clubbed her tomboy side with a biological clock. She wasn't getting any younger, and Naruto was interested in her. SHE WANTED TO DATE! TO BE GIRLY DAMMIT! SHE WANTED TO BE THE FUCKING PRETTY PRINCESS!

Okay, so maybe her girly side wasn't so super girly as she might have imagined, but she did have a mean left hook. Looking up, she found Naruto watching her play with whatever it was in her hands. He looked really good with that wall he threw up out in public down. His eyes were soft like the sky on a warm summer day. The whisker marks gave him a look that he was a lost little puppy waiting for a clue as to what's happening.

Letting the blanket she'd been kneading fall onto her lap, she pointed to the end of her bed. It was as he was walking over that she noticed he was carrying two bowls of leftover tempera that she'd had sitting in her fridge since her Christmas Eve feast. She was frankly surprised that it was still good.

As she took her first bite, she realized that the sauce had marinated a bit too much, but otherwise it was fine. It was a day or so before she'd have to admit it'd gone bad, and probably two months before she'd end up killing it and throwing it away. Maybe she should think about cleaning out her refrigerator a bit more often...

As the two of them settled in, Naruto began telling about how Tsunade had said that Tenten could go for a walk tomorrow, but it had to be a short one. At first Tenten didn't believe him, then he held out a note that she was to report to the Hokage's office first thing in the afternoon.

With that, she knew exactly when 'My True Love' would be coming, and had a hope about who it was. Tomorrow was looking brighter already, now she just had to enjoy the rest of the day. Naruto helped a lot in that aspect, and when he had to go she hobbled her way to the door, careful not to put weight on the injured foot.

Just before he left, she leaned in and gently kissed him on the cheek, giving him a bright smile. "I'll see you tomorrow Naruto-kun..."

"H...hai... Tenten-chan..." Naruto replied with a slight catch and a heavy blush. "Good luck with that 'My True Love' person..."

"Oh, I believe I may know who they are..." Tenten answered back, "I'll tell you tomorrow though..."

"Right, sleep well Tenten-chan..." Naruto called back, turning to go with a wave over his shoulder. Tenten calmly closed the door and then slumped to the ground a nervous wreck. Little did she know who was duplicating her in the park down the road.


	12. Day 12

Tenten knew she'd called into the Hokage's office to give 'My True Love' time to set up her final day's presents, but she didn't know that was the _only_ reason she'd been called in. A cursory examination of her toe later, she was waved off, with a bit of teasing. "Now, be fair to them, and let them explain before you crush their heart..."

Tenten wondered when her relationship status had become a joke to the Hokage, and for the life of her, she couldn't even remember when she'd become of notice to her. Maybe it was true that Naruto was the Hokage's long lost grandson. That would explain so much about their relationship, especially if Jiraiya was Naruto's grandfather, but then why would he be the blonde's godfather? Maybe she was missing something here...

Instead of letting it bother her, she decided to take the most direct route home, which oddly enough was lined with banners supporting her. Okay, that was just her imagination, but what she saw certainly didn't make her want to hurry home. Naruto was walking along with a girl dressed up in very expensive winter clothing, and, if she was right, it was the princess of the land of Snow, trying to be casual.

"I don't know Koyuki-chan... This guy in red sounds kinda creepy, I mean slipping down chimneys and leaving gifts for little kids... and then there's the whole seeing you when you're sleeping thing..." Naruto stated loud enough for her to hear from down the street.

The princess laughed brightly as they rounded a corner. "Naruto-kun, he's supposed to ensure that the children are behaving, and gives them gifts as rewards once a year. It's perfectly innocent."

For some reason, Tenten felt her heart sinking down into her stomach, and on top of that there was a burning desire to hunt down the princess and use her for target practice. Instead of succumbing to her instincts, and starting an international incident, the weapons mistress continued on her way home. To her surprise, all the likely suspects for her secret Santa were out today. Sakura and Ino were walking down the street looking in the stores, apparently looking for some furniture or something. Kiba was walking with Akamaru, hard to miss them what with Akamaru being the size of a large carriage. Shikamaru and Chouji were walking into the all-you-can-eat Korean-BBQ restaurant which she suddenly felt bad for. Finally was a woman that set Tenten's blood boiling, her biggest competition for Naruto's heart was walking away from her home in a new looking coat. However, the main reason she suddenly felt the need to tear her to shreds was that Hinata was wearing a new necklace, twelve tiny diamonds forming a familiar spiral with its silver settings.

It would seem that Naruto had spent a good amount on the Hyuuga heiress, and that tore her up inside. Getting away from the girl she'd previously thought of more as a little sister than any of the others, which made it a lot easier to want to get away from her instead of trying to kill the girl.

She couldn't understand it, not once, but twice she'd wanted to kill a girl just for having a connection to Naruto that she didn't have. She couldn't figure out why she felt like she was forgetting someone, but couldn't think of who. As she passed the electronics store that Ino and Sakura had walked past, pointing to something inside, she blinked as she saw a news report from the Land of Snow, about Koyuki's press conference.

The corner said it was live, but Koyuki, the princess couldn't possibly be there and here with Naruto, could she? Shaking her head she turned down the road to her apartment, she wrote it off as being a previously recorded news report, and just went on her way.

Opening her door, she figured out why she felt that she was missing someone. She was. There was Shino, standing at her stove cooking something that smelled suspiciously like sesame dumplings. The dummy was standing next to him, as though watching him cook.

The bug user turned around with a steaming pot of dumplings and soup, watching her stare at him. After a moment he spoke, breaking the silence between the two. "You seem disappointed..."

Tenten blinked before looking away with a slight blush. Was she disappointed? After all, Shino wasn't that bad of a guy, and he'd been so nice to her, hadn't he?

"I'm sorry Shino... it's just..." Tenten started before Shino cut her off while setting down the pot.

"I'm not who you love," Shino stated calmly, as though he'd known all along. "The gifts weren't to buy your love, I knew that you couldn't be bought like that. I just wanted to give you Christmas in a big way..."

"Thank you Shino-san..." Tenten said quietly, when something rang hollow in her ears. There were no bugs here, every Aburame buzzed softly thanks to their hive. Slipping a special set of kunai out of her sleeve, she smiled and walked over. Half a moment later, 'Shino' was pinned to the wall by a net with kunai at each corner. "Now, tell me who you really are."

'Shino' let out a sigh before hanging his head. "I knew I couldn't pull bug-boy off right, but he's the only one I could convince to let me pull this prank..." Shino answered in a rather familiar voice. "I am 'My True Love' Tenten-chan... I wanted to find out if you really did like me..."

"I see... I suppose I saw you outside... didn't I?"

"Yes, you did," 'Shino' answered, before being surrounded by a plume of smoke. In place of the bug user, Naruto stood on the floor, free of the netting. "Sorry I tricked you Tenten-chan..."

The weapon-mistress stalked over to the blonde prankster, murder in her eyes. After getting there, she smacked him upside the back of his head. As he cried out in pain, she leaned in and captured his lips with her own. "Just had to make sure..."

"This is going to be a painful relationship, isn't it?"

Tenten smiled and looked over at the dozen dumplings sitting there waiting for her, letting Naruto sweat a moment. Walking away, she twirled a kunai on one of her fingers while humming a wordless tune. "After lunch, we're going to... _**talk**_ about your other girlfriends..."

The tone of her voice caused Naruto to shudder in terror, this was going to be a weird relationship.


End file.
